Half Way Homeschool Update

You know that one time you had everything all planned out and then... you ended up throwing most of it out the window? Ya, seems like this happens a lot, to me, anyway. This was my original plan for this year. And it has definitely changed. For the better, and for the simpler.
Joshua is using the five subjects available with Monarch from Alpha Omega Publishing. Bible, History, Language Arts, Math, and Science all in one spot and one format. It is too easy for me and he really is learning a lot. He uses free cursive handwriting worksheets that I found here. He has daily reading practice and I bribe reward them both for reading a certain number of pages. We do most of our reading on the Kindle App. Joshua doesn't have much interest in art or music right now. He is super into video games and I'd love to find him something to teach him how to start basic programming or something.
Nikolas is using four subjects of LifePacs from Alpha Omega Publishing. Bible, History, Language Arts, and Science in a streamlined workbook format. He uses A+ Tutor Soft for math online. Nikolas is using the handwriting book from Horizon that is transitioning him into cursive. He also reads daily for a reward. He also really enjoys doing art videos from YouTube, including Southern HodgePodge and Doodle Draw Art. See the Light has also hit the DVD player recently, I'm hoping he starts using those more because they are really good.
We also learned about Harry Potter and did some fun learning before our trip to Orlando. I wanted them to enjoy that part of Universal Studios.
We use a bunch of different learning apps on their tablets.
Here is a list of their top ten favorites, in no particular order:

• Stack the States
• Stack the Countries
• Presidents VS Aliens
• Tower Math
• Bible for Kids
• Wild Kratts
• Kindle (this is my favorite)
• Mathblaster
• Mercer Mayer interactive books from Oceanhouse Media
• and the winner is Minecraft, no surprise there.

We use other apps but these are the favorites. Minecraft is used as a reward. I will post more about the other apps that I have them use for learning, that may not be favorites but they do learn from them.

Such focus.